Bark & Blade Privacy Policy

Last updated 16 September 2026

Who we are

Bark & Blade is made and published by instructions unclear, an independent game studio. We are the data controller for everything described on this page.

For anything here, including a request to see or delete your data, write to instructionsuncleardev@gmail.com. We aim to reply within 30 days.

The short version

The game sends us crash reports automatically. You can turn that off, and we tell you about it before we send anything.
The game sends us nothing else unless you press a button to send it.
We do not run adverts, we do not profile you, and we do not sell or share your data with anyone for their own purposes.
We never see your save file, your chat, your payment details or your real name.

What the game sends, and when

Automatic crash reports

When the game crashes, it writes a report to your own machine and, by default, also sends a copy to us so the crash can be fixed.

A crash report contains:

the error message and the stack trace that produced it
the last 256 KB of the game log
your operating system version, graphics card model, and the game and engine version
the name of the scene the game was in when it crashed

Before anything is sent, the report is scanned and your Windows account name is replaced with the word player, including anywhere it appears inside a file path in the log.

Limits that apply to every automatic send:

only genuine crashes are sent, never ordinary recoverable errors
the same crash is only ever sent once from your machine
at most 2 per play session and 3 per day
nothing is sent at all until you have seen the notice the game shows on first launch and chosen an option

You can turn this off. The first-launch notice has a button that switches it off immediately. After that it lives in Settings, under Accessibility, as "Send Crash Reports". Turning it off stops all automatic sending. Reports are still written to your own machine so you can attach one to a bug report by hand if you want to.

Feedback you send yourself

The game has a feedback panel you can open to report a bug or make a suggestion. Nothing in it is sent until you press send.

When you do, we receive:

the category, subject and message you typed
your Steam ID and your Steam display name, so we can reply and so we can tell two reports apart
your operating system, graphics card, game version and current scene
your full game log for that session, up to 4 MB, compressed

Your Windows account name is scrubbed from the log in the same way it is for crash reports. Your Steam ID and display name are not removed, because the point of a manual report is that we can follow it up with you.

If you do not want us to have your Steam ID, do not use the feedback panel. Email us instead.

Steam features

Bark & Blade uses Steam for achievements, statistics, leaderboards, cloud saves, rich presence and the friends list. When you use those features, Valve processes your data under Steam's own privacy policy. We can see your Steam ID, display name, achievement progress and leaderboard entries through Steam's API. We do not receive your email address, your payment details or your purchase history.

Co-operative play

Co-op sessions run through Steam's own networking relay. Your IP address is not shared with the other players and theirs is not shared with you. The host's Steam ID is visible to people joining their session, which is how joining works.

What stays on your machine and never reaches us

your save files and profile names
your settings
the local copies of your crash logs, in the game's CrashReports folder
everything you type in-game that you do not submit through the feedback panel

What we never collect

We do not collect your name, your email address (unless you email us), your postal address, your age, your payment details, your location beyond the country Steam already knows, your contacts, or anything from other software on your computer. We do not use advertising identifiers. We do not build a profile of you and we make no automated decisions about you.

Who else sees it

Who	What they get	Why	Where
Discord	Crash reports and feedback reports, delivered into a private channel only the developers can read	It is where we read and triage bug reports	United States
Valve	Steam account data for achievements, leaderboards, cloud saves and co-op	The game is distributed and played through Steam	United States
Google	Feedback reports only, and only if the Discord delivery is unavailable	Fallback so a bug report is not lost	United States

Nobody on that list is permitted to use your data for their own purposes. We do not sell your data and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.

Our legal basis, if you are in the UK or EU

Automatic crash reports: legitimate interest (UK GDPR / GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). Our interest is in a game that does not crash. The data is minimised and pseudonymised before it leaves your machine, it is not used to identify you or to build any profile, and you can switch it off in two clicks from the notice we show you before the first one is ever sent. We have written and kept a Legitimate Interests Assessment for this and will provide it on request.
Feedback you send yourself: consent, given by pressing the send button after the panel has told you what it attaches. You can withdraw it by asking us to delete the report.
Steam features: performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)). You cannot have working achievements or cloud saves without them.

How long we keep it

Crash reports and feedback reports: 12 months, then deleted from the Discord channel.
Anything we have quoted into a bug tracker entry is kept until that bug is fixed and released, then deleted.
Steam data is held by Valve on Valve's own schedule, not ours.

Your rights

If you are in the UK or the EU you have the right to ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to receive it in a portable format. If you are in California you have equivalent rights under the CCPA, including the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them. We extend these rights to everyone, wherever you live, because it is simpler than not doing so.

To exercise any of them, email instructionsuncleardev@gmail.com. Tell us your Steam ID if you know it, or the approximate date and the game version, and we will find the reports and delete them. We will not charge you and we will not ask you to create an account.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled a request, you can complain to your national data protection authority. In the UK that is the Information Commissioner's Office.

Children

Bark & Blade is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has sent us a report, email us and we will delete it.

International transfers

We are contacting you through services hosted in the United States. Where data is transferred out of the UK or the EEA, it is covered by the transfer mechanisms those providers operate, which for Discord, Google and Valve are the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and their equivalents. The volume involved is small and the content is technical.

Changes to this policy

If we change what the game collects, we will update this page and change the date at the top. If a change is significant, the game will show you a fresh notice rather than relying on you checking this page.